The Linear Pottery Well of Altscherbitz is a

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

from the Neolithic

Linear Pottery Culture The Linear Pottery culture (LBK) is a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic period, flourishing . Derived from the German ''Linearbandkeramik'', it is also known as the Linear Band Ware, Linear Ware, Linear Ceramics or Incis ...

discovered in 2005. Altscherbitz is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

of the town

Schkeuditz Schkeuditz (; ) is a ''Große Kreisstadt'' in the district of Nordsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the White Elster river, 12km northwest of Leipzig. Leipzig/Halle Airport is located in Schkeuditz. The letter processing center for ...

in the district of

Nordsachsen Nordsachsen (, ) is a district (''Districts of Germany, Kreis'') in Saxony, Germany. History The district was established by merging the former districts of Delitzsch (district), Delitzsch and Torgau-Oschatz as part of the district reform of Au ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The well supplied several

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

settlements in the Altscherbitz area with water more than 7,000 years ago. It was located in soil deep. The

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

took place in advance of the expansion of the

Leipzig/Halle Airport Leipzig/Halle Airport is an international airport located in Schkeuditz, Saxony, Germany, and serves both Leipzig, Saxony, and Halle, Saxony-Anhalt. It is a state-owned enterprise and allows 24 hour take off and landing for cargo flights. In ...

. In order to enable a proper excavation, the well was recovered as a block about tall and weighing about 70 tons using heavy machinery and brought to

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

. There it was excavated under laboratory conditions in a hall of the State Office for Archaeology in Saxony from 2008 to 2010. Numerous unique finds are on display in the

State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz The State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz (German language, German: ''Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz''), abbreviated smac, is the archaeological and cultural-historical museum of the Free State of Saxony. It is in Chemnitz, Germany, a ...

which opened in 2014. Wooden nails were used to connect the planks. These could be dated dendrochronologically based on the annual rings. Schkeuditz bone tip 02

References

External links

* {{Cite web , title=Ein linienbandkeramischer Brunnen von Altscherbitz, Flughafen Leipzig/Halle , url=https://www.archaeologie.sachsen.de/ein-linienbandkeramischer-brunnen-von-altscherbitz-flughafen-leipzig-halle-4398.html , date=2019-02-27 , access-date=2025-01-03 , website=archaeologie.sachsen.de , language=de Archaeological sites in Germany Schkeuditz Linear Pottery culture